The present invention relates to a headrest for a vehicle seat, with the headrest including a four-bar linkage having upper and lower linkages mounted for pivoting relative to a carrier, and an impact element that is connected to the upper and lower linkages so that the impact element moves from an original position to a crash position by moving away from the carrier in an at least generally forward direction in response to pivoting of the upper and lower linkages; an energy storage device for driving the four-bar linkage so that the impact element moves from the original position to the crash position in response to a crash; and a crash lock for restricting the impact element from moving from the crash position toward the original position.
A headrest of the type described above is known from DE 199 51 966 A1, in which the impact element comes out in the event of a crash by means of a four-bar linkage that is in the form a parallelogram, and the drive is a spring-loaded swivel arm which locks in the crash position.